Death is coming. And he wants to help.

A young man dies, and a grim reaper offers to revive him in exchange for servitude. Responsibilities include saving other people’s lives and occasionally fighting unspeakable horrors. But this particular young man is cripplingly shy. No, seriously. He can barely even speak to people. It’s really bad.

Editorial Reviews

Weirdly witty and compelling are words that could describe Garavol the Grim Reaper, as well as the story "The Zombie Knight" itself, right from page one. I’ve always thought dialogue was a great way to start a story and draw the reader in, and here we have an intriguing opening conversation between a successfully suicidal teen and a "grim reaper" come to make an offer he could refuse, if he’d really wanted to die. I was convinced as quickly as young Hector to put myself under thrall to the story and give the "Zombie Knight" a try. The pages are short and very turnable.

Don’t be fooled by the title, this isn’t a Romero style zombie apocalypse. It’s closer to the idea of the traditional Haitian zombie raised to serve the will of a magician – only Garavol gives a better deal for the "zombie" as he gets to retain his faculties of reason and gains some superpowers to help him rescue people in imminent danger of death. However, Hector and Garavol’s initial bull in a china shop approach to dealing with bad guys has some unintended consequences.

One of the most charming aspects of the story is seeing how the miserably shy and lonely boy blossoms in unexpected ways, finding in unlife what he needed all along, a way to make a difference and a friend who cares about him. Frost has created a flawed character who is very appealing and sympathetic.

A couple things bothered me a bit. At one point, to avoid recognition Hector puts on a welding mask, then proceeds to sprint with enhanced speed down a crowded city street in broad daylight, leaping over cars. Sounds like a good way to have multiple people calling the police to report suspicious activity, at the least. Also, the setting seems just like modern Earth, but the author makes a point of it not being modern Earth, but a imaginary world with fantastic sounding place names except for the city Hector lives in, which is called Brighton (a geographical version of the Bob and Aeirith trope?). But no, it’s not Brighton, England, or even Brighton, New York, or any of the other myriad Brightons of our world. No doubt the author has a good reason for doing this, which may even have already been revealed to those who have read further than I. But in the early chapters, it feels annoying, because it seems like the setting might as well be our modern Earth, and then it would be easier to gauge whether the odd things that happen are something totally unheard of.

Sep 27, 2013: It’s not often you find a fresh take on a superhero mold.

Though, strictly speaking, The Zombie Knight is more of a supernatural fantasy story than a superhero story, it has enough in common to feel comfortable and familiar but enough to distinguish it so that it doesn’t feel boring and derivative.

Instead of getting bitten by a radioactive spider, The Zombie Knight’s protagonist, Hector, is saved from death by a reaper, [more . . .]

May 6, 2015: I’ve been reading this serial for several months now. When I began, I burned through the first arc or three at lightning speed. There were a couple hitches, but it was easily a 4.5/5 book at that time. The story was compelling, the characters interesting, and the plot "twist" central to the main villain story was dramatic.

Then the story kept going. Hector saved a person, and that was interesting. Then he started meeting some very powerful servants, and that was [more . . .]